On Call The Midwife, Olly Rix didn’t want to see Helen George in her wedding gown before she walked down the aisle.
The actor was keen to make it a great day for Matthew Aylwar and Trixie Franklin when they tie the knot in this weekend’s season finale, which meant making it as real as possible.
‘I did all I could,’ he remarked on Friday’s programme of Lorraine. It was a busy day, and there were so many people in the church that there wasn’t much time to make a plan.
‘But I did everything I could to make sure I didn’t see Helen before she arrived on set. I had no idea what the dress was going to look like.
‘I spoke to the guys dropping us down there and I said, “Look, please make sure we don’t cross paths, I don’t wanna see her until I see her walking down the aisle.” ‘
He added: ‘Amazingly it worked, and it was a bit of a heart stopping moment.’
He is aware of the public’s fondness for Trixie as a character and Helen herself, and there was some pressure to get things precisely perfect.
‘Yeah for sure. I think I felt a lot of responsibility towards Helen and Trixie,’ he explained. ‘She’s a really much loved character. I just wanted to do what I could so safeguard the day and make sure it was about her.’
Even in real life, fans have approached him on the street and asked him to care after her, though he admits that has ‘eased off a bit’ since people attempted to figure him out during his first couple of seasons.
As for the wedding itself, it was filmed in a ‘beautiful church’ and it meant a lot of having the whole cast come together.
The wedding event was filmed in a ‘wonderful chapel,’ and it required the entire group to come together.
‘It’s always lovely when you get all the cast together, it’s quite a special thing. People stand up to give readings and do things you do at weddings,’ Olly added. ‘I’ve never been married before, but I feel like I’ve had some good practice.’
And, while Olly doesn’t normally listen in on his own projects, he’ll make an exception for this particular edition.
He said: ‘I think I probably will, yeah. I don’t normally watch things. It’s not yours anymore, it belongs to the audience. But I think I will this time.’
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV. The Call the Midwife season finale airs on Sunday (February 26) at 8pm on BBC 1.